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The Grand Canal runs through the centre of Cangzhou, and a city district is named after it. The channel, its place in the 2014 World Heritage listing and the town it shaped are easier to trace than the boat crews who worked it.
The iron lion at Cangzhou weighs 32 tonnes and carries a date of 953. It stands in the old county city at Jiuzhou, and three explanations of its purpose survive, none proved; each repair since 1957 has brought a new problem.
Wuqiao County in Cangzhou has produced acrobats for centuries, first as slack-season work on poor land. Its art is national intangible heritage, and its props are still ordinary household things: ropes, bowls, jars and knife gates.